Current Mosaic Project

While I'm waiting for the orders of supplies for the other mosaic project I'm working on I decided to make Wes' sign for the apiary, Beelandia. He's been wanting one ever since the apiary became public knowledge last summer (with the infamous article in the Winona Daily News regarding the bee ordinance and the various responses to it ).

The sign is 12" x 24". The letters and the bees are in smalti and the background is stained glass, and the differences in the thickness will make the sign have a little bit of a third dimension. I'm going to put a thin strip of copper around the piece to serve as a frame.

I'm doing the bees in tiny pieces of smalti. I wanted to make their striped bodies with narrow, slightly curved slices of glass so that they would obviously be bees. I then decided to also make the wings out of random tiny slivers and wedges of smalti so that they'd be more interesting and give the bees more character than using just a few larger pieces. This will be a grouted piece and the grout will make the bees -- bodies and wings -- cohesive elements while accenting the green background pieces, making them stand out as distinct blades of grass. There will be enough contrast between the letters and the background that there won't be any problem seeing the letters as letters.

Close-up of bees, letters and grass (background)

Recent Work

I've been creating a new studio for the last couple weeks. I cleared out an unused bedroom (next to the glass/mosaic studio), covered the floor with 1/4" plywood for protection, and built a workbench.

 And started working on the medusa sculpture.

And dreadlocked my hair.

And shoveled A LOT of snow.

Thank goodness for generous neighbors with snow blowers!

Clean Water, Clean Air

When I hear the "Green Jobs, Green Jobs" mantra I wonder about a couple things.

First and foremost is whether or not the so-called green jobs really are "green" or if they're simply being repackaged - like changing the name of Kellogg's Sugar Smacks to Honey Smacks... without changing the nearly 50% sugar content (see Consumer Reports - Health.org)...

I also wonder how we're going to convince the public to buy/use green alternatives since they're bound to be more expensive (I've a suspicion that the greenwashed products will be even more expensive than the actual green products since it's marketing behind the green, instead of an actual product revision... but that may just be my cynicism surfacing).

Even when there are real green alternatives, there is often great resistance to implementing them.

I listened to a MNPR story this morning about the proposed Prairie Island power increase.

Xcel Energy has made the decision to increase production at the Prairie Island plant - beyond what the plant was built to safely produce - instead of choosing to use renewables to meet increased demand, because it was CHEAPER.  In reality, the expansion of nuclear power is only cheaper when you close your eyes to the environmental effects - the unsolvable environmental effects.

The most chilling aspect of this increase is the increased waste problem. Nuclear waste isn't like other waste. It isn't feasibly recycled; it cannot be filtered out of the air or the water; it lasts as near to forever as matters to any who are alive now...

The proposed increase in power at the Prairie Island facility would not only cause significant stress on the structure of the power plants (think - higher pressure, higher heat, pipe corrosion, pipe cracks...), but also would generate many more casks of spent nuclear waste. This potentially increases the risk to anyone living near or downriver from the power plant.

Currently waste casks sit on a concrete pad next to the plant, on an island in the Mississippi River which is the source of drinking water for many communities downstream. There currently is only a small amount of leakage of radioactive materials into the air and water - in an amount that is deemed by some to be safe for human exposure. Others have concerns that the monitoring may be insufficient, and still others wonder if any additional exposure to radioactive materials, beyond what occurs naturally, is really safe. The proposed increase of power is expected to increase the radioactive discharges into the air and the river by 10 percent.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has already approved this "uprate" at Xcel's other nuclear plant at Monticello. The federal government is expected to approve it. Next on the docket is the Prairie Island decision.

It's up to the Minnesota government to stop this risk. We should be telling our representatives and senators to vote no on this expansion. Make a real commitment to our health, and our planet's health. Keep us safe from this kind of risk. There are alternatives to nuclear power and its deadly waste.

FASEM Show

FASEM is the Fine Artists of Southeast Minnesota. There's going to be a show in June & July here in Winona and one of my mosaics are going to be in it - Mackenzie in the Garden with Bees.

Article in the Winona Daily News

I was interviewed Monday night by a local reporter.

The story ran today. It's not bad at all, although she misquoted me slightly about survival and making art.

What I actually said was "once all our energies are not taken up with survival concerns, humans tend to make art and decorate their surroundings."

She also underplayed the mosaic part of my practice. I think it was that the encaustic made better demonstration photos and had a bit more mystery to it than chipping up glass and gluing it down.

She also did not mention that I am on the board at the Winona Arts Center - oh well, I tried to get it in the story...

Art Department Blog

The Art & Design department where I work has a new blog that features student assignments/projects/work.

Mosaic Workshop

March 11, 18, 25 & April 1
Mosaic Art: Creating Glass Tile Mosaics
Wednesdays • 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Winona Arts Center
228E 5th St
Winona MN 55987
507-453-9959

Participants will learn how to create mosaics using vitreous glass tiles. They will also learn a bit of miasic history. Emphasis will be given to understanding and mastering techniques so that participants will be able to create mosaics on their own after taking this workshop. Participants will have the iption of signing up for either a 1 mosaic option (materials for a 1 sp.ft. mosaic to be created in the workshop) or a 3 mosiac option (materials for a 1 sp.ft. mosaic to be created in the workshop, plus materials to create 2 aditional mosiacs for further exploration). In addition, participants may purchase the tile nippers used in the workshop.

Tuition: $60
Materials: $25 for 1 mosaic, $55 for 3 mosaics
Tools: $20 for tile nippers (some will be available for use in the workshop)

Registration deadline: class may be canceled if less than 4 people register by March 1.

Instructor: Monta Gael May, MFA, montamay@gmail.com

This is the information for the mosaic workshop I am leading. If you are interested in registering for the workshop please contact the Winona Arts Center or email me.

Lake Park Fountain Art Project - Update

Voting now open!

The Blue Heron Committee selected three finalists from all the artists presenting proposals and placed the choices online so that anyone can vote on their choice of artists and sculptures (that's not a hint or request for your vote, by the way - just an explanation of the process - but you could vote if you wanted).

My proposal for the project is a mosaic patio/floor showing a water scene (river or lake, we have both in town) with various water animals playfully but realistically rendered. The fountain would be surrounded with a papercrete form - a sandbar with reeds, cattails, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects illustrated in mosaic.

To do or to write about doing

I've been focused on doing rather than writing about doing lately. When I get home I need to do something with my hands instead of typing. I've been looking at a computer screen for around 9 hours a day at work, and the last thing I want to do is turn on a computer when I get home.

Luckily, I have plenty of art to do.

I am participating in a community Art Tour in December. Members of the community go around by foot and vehicle to various artist studios, and hopefully find items they want to buy. Most of my art is probably too highly priced for most Winona people, and I hesitate to underprice myself. Underpricing one's not only hurts the artist who is cutting prices, but also hurts other artists who then feel pressured to lower their prices.

I sell my paintings for between $95 and $300, my tapestries between $75 and $1,500, and I will be selling mosaics for between $100 and 500. None of those are going to be of interest to most of the people coming to the Art Tour.

So I pulled out all the gourds that I had on hand, and purchased some additional small ones, and I've been doing some gourd pieces that should sell from between $30 and $100 - except for the gourd drums, which will sell for between $250 and $400.

Assorted gourd work in various stages of completion.

Here you can see some bowls, some sculptural (non-functional) pieces, some musical instruments (snake gourds - the otter in front and the unfinished gourds in the upper right; and the beginnings of a large gourd drum, upper center. and some shakers, near the drum and near the leather dye), some bowls with lids and a couple some hinged boxes.

The Lion Roars, mosaic, Venetian glass tiles.
I am waiting for more glass tiles to come from Tile Shack.
The Lion Roars is based on the textile work of Jude Hill.

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I really don't get upset if my art doesn't sell. I am not trying to make my living off of it - which makes it even more important that I don't underprice and handicap other artists.

9-1-2007

I started this blog on August 2nd of last year. I had just learned my father was dying of lung cancer. The bridge in Minneapolis had just collapsed, or was collapsing - I cannot quite remember the order of things.

One year ago yesterday, one year and 12 hours ago, my father died. I was on the road, desperately trying to get there before he passed on. I did not make it.

One year ago today I was helping with funeral arrangements, trying to transfer airline tickets for our daughters and granddaughter to fly in from Las Vegas, and trying to arrange a ticket for our son, Eli, to fly down from Winona (he stayed home since we had more people than would fit in the station wagon and we never dreamed my father would die that night).

Eli's ticket was not a problem. Transferring the girls' tickets was a nightmare. In the end we ended up spending nearly $3,000 for the airline tickets we purchased that day and the ones we had purchased two days before, since they would not let us transfer the original tickets without paying fees and the difference between the ticket prices. That would have been more than buying new tickets, so we bought new tickets. After that we learned that the initial ticket order had been duplicated and so we owned 8 tickets. Nova and Taylor would fly in from Vegas that night. Aluna would fly in the next morning so that she could work her shift (it was impossible to get a substitute at that late notice). Eli would fly down from Minnesota that night, just a couple hours ahead of Nova and Tay. Eli doesn't drive, didn't drive, so Princess and Matt took him to the airport - a 2-hour drive from Winona.

I am amazed now, looking back, that it all worked out.

Winona County DFL Website

I did not work on the tapestry last night. I had wanted to go to the DFL Tech committee meeting, get lots of work done and then come home and work on the tapestry.

Instead of doing that, I ended up having only one other member of my committee attend the meeting and then staying an extra hour at the DFL to teach someone how to use Google Groups.

Frustrated by the lack of progress and the lack of response to my requests for help with the website content, I decided to do it myself and then bring it back to a few key people who I know will get me the information that I need. When I got home (around 7 pm) I started working on the site. Shortly before midnight I posted the redesign to a temporary location and am now waiting on more information and feedback.

Successful Party

Saturday night Abelisto & I had a Cinco de Mayo party at our house. 34 Co-workers, spouses and children came to our house between the hours of 6pm and 10pm or so. The guests were invited to bring either a dessert or a beverage if they wanted to do so. We now have so much alcohol (in the form of all sorts of beer, Irish whiskey, Mexican brandy, and tequilla) in our house that it will take years to consume it all - neither Abelisto nor I drink alcohol in any format, although I do taste things just to experience them.

I think the success of our parties (this was our third) is the mix of people that we invite. There are people from all areas of the university - except perhaps, upper administration. Both Ablisto and I have friends across the university - Abelisto has been there for nearly 25 years, and I am fairly gregarious and outgoing.

The party mostly consisted of people enjoying lots of Mexican food and great conversations with people they do not see often. The semester is nearly over (finals last Friday, Saturday, tomorrow and Tuesday - then we are done until August) and it felt really good to celebrate a number of things. I am not off for the summer, of course, not being faculty, but I enjoy most any occasion to get together with these people.

The hit of the party was Abelisto's apiary - Beelandia. People were going in and out all evening to watch the bees doing the bee-thing. It was good to see people listening to Abelisto talk about sustainable beekeeping.

The next party will be in the fall. I think that we could have up to 40 people in the house. We may end up with that many. Our parties are evermore popular.

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Sustain Winona

Last week (or maybe it was the week before) I finished doing the Sustain Winona website. I am not in the Sustain Winona task force - I just wanted to redo the website since it was not what I thought it should/could be.

No one has given me any change or told me that they hated it, so I thought I would post a link here (and in my Blogroll) just to share the site.

Sustain Winona

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First time caucuser

On Tuesday night I attended my very first political caucus. I totally understand the fever downriver in Iowa. It was a blast.

As in caucuses across Minnesota, it was a record turnout at our caucus. We (Abelisto, daughter #4, and I) walked the 8 blocks from our house to the high school where the DFL (democratic, farm, labor party) caucus for our area of town was held. It was a pleasant walk, the temperature was in the 20s and the wind was mild to non-existent. The only difficulty was that there had been a day or so above freezing earlier in the week followed by a day of light snow, so the footing was a bit precarious. I ended up down on the sidewalk after stepping on some snow-covered ice. Since I was holding Abelisto's hand at the time he also ended up going down. Oh, well, finding yourself laid out flat on the ice is part of life as a Minnesotan.

When we got to the school the parking lot was full and people were parking in the driveway and roads surrounding the building. Once inside we studied the map of the city to see which ward and precinct we lived in. None of us had done this before. We vote in elections, but up until now I have never lived in a state where people went to caucuses instead of primaries.

TheWard 2 Precinct 2 group was meeting in the outer room of the media center (library computer area). There were probably 35 attendees. The very first thing we did is sign in and cast our ballots for the presidential contest.

Daughter #4 asked some very good questions about some of the resolutions and I got up and spoke against one of them. It did not pass, so I must have been somewhat convincing. Three or four people spoke for it and myself and one other against. I volunteered to be a delegate at the next level. I will go to the county caucus here in Winona in March and vote and debate the issues. I probably won't go any farther than that since this is my first year. After the county caucus there is the regional and then the state. Both would be about a 2 hour drive from here. At the state caucus in early June, the delegates are chosen to go to the national convention. I think that would be fun, but you have to pay for everything yourself and that can get expensive. One of the women at work has gone to the national convention - when Jimmy Carter was nominated.

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Floods

We have been dealing with excessive rain and flooding here in Winona. Our lovely bluffs and coulees (ravines) tend to cause flash floods if we get more than 2 inches of rain in a six hour period (according to the state hydrologist). I think they are saying that we got around 17 inches of rain in a 36 hour period.

Our house has not flooded, but many others have not been so fortunate. Entire houses have washed away - some with the owners sitting on the roof. There is a 40 foot hole across one highway. I heard somewhere that more than one car went over the edge of the abyss while the water was raging. One nearby town is totally surrounded by water, partially submerged by water. The Red Cross is boating supplies into the residents. Everywhere you look there are downed trees, flotsam and jetsam, and mud, mud, mud. And gawking onlookers - I have resisted the temptation to go look-see.

Tonight there have been a number of ambulances going down the street in front of our house.

The university where I work is being used by the American Red Cross as a shelter for evacuees from all over the county. Dignitaries have been to town, made speeches and promises and left - no mud on their shoes.

We keep walking down into the basement - just to check. It is still raining, on and off. I really should pick the important stuff off of the floor, but I dwell in denial.

Mount Trempealeau

One more river fog photo

This one is the Mississippi River with Mt. Trempealeau (the largest sandbar on the river) taken from the Minnesota side, a few miles downriver from Winona Minn.

We get a considerable amount of fog throughout the bluffs that border the river here. I believe this is Radiation fog (fog formed by the cooling of land after sunset by thermal radiation in calm conditions with clear sky. The cool ground produces condensation in the nearby air by heat conduction. Radiation fogs occur at night, and usually do not last long after sunrise).

In the early spring we get Advection fog (fog caused by moist air flowing over snowpack). It happens when it gets warm one day and the air fills with moisture from the melting snow. The next morning all the bluff tops will be covered in hoarfrost, every tree, every dried weed stalk, every blade of grass. It is amazingly beautiful and haunting. I have a photo of a spruce tree covered in hoarfrost, I will have to try to find it and post it here...

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Another Photograph

Mississippi Bridge

You can sort of see the second rainbow just to the left of the main one.

The bridge is the one crossing the Mississippi River at Winona Minn. You cannot see the river from this view. We tried to get closer to the bridge/river before the rainbows vanished, but they were gone in a matter of minutes. They reappeared later, but we had parked the car (with the camera in it) and were on bicycle by that time. I love to ride just after a rain, or in a light drizzle rain (as long as it is not a cold rain).

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